IMPACT: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (24 page)

The guys tease the fuck out of me for my long-ass showers, but that’s the only thing that helps me come down from the high of playing. If I left as quickly as they did, I’d be too detached from everything, and end up getting run over by a CTA bus.

I was still there, still in that zone, still solely focused on the goal, when I saw Candace.

Last night she had left things unfinished between us. Now it was clear she wanted the same thing I did.

To finish what we had started.

I knew I hadn't misread her.

She appeared, out of the fog, but once I saw her, everything fell away and I only had one goal.

I was going to take her. I was going to have her. There was no other option.

And from the way she was looking at me, eyes wide, lips slightly parted, her pink tongue pressed tightly against her top teeth, she was going to let me.

The nicest girl I had ever met - the angel of my better nature - was ready to get nasty.

Fuck
.

I kissed her with all of the pent-up desire I’d been holding back. Trying to be a nice guy, trying to be good; fuck, it was burning a hole right through the center of me, leaving nothing left but need.

Her lips were as sweet as she was, but I had to know if she tasted as sweet down there.

“I’m going to kiss that sweet pussy now,” I told her, locking her wrists tightly together and pressing her back against the lockers. She arched her back to me, undulating her hips, her body responding even before her words could. Then I told her. I told her, in no uncertain terms, all of the filthy things I had been thinking of doing to her since the moment I saw her in that blue dress.

“Are you wet, Candace? Are you wet for me?”

“
Yes
, I’m wet for you. I’m wet for you, Ian.”

I was fairly certain she was telling me the truth, but there was only one way to be sure.

Sliding my fingers down past the waist of her jeans, I found it.

“Oh shit, you’re even better than I imagined.” She was soft as silk, and slippery already. My cock, already rock hard, became a diamond.

I held her, impaled upon my fingers, enjoying the way she clenched around me, just long enough to make her pant in wide-eyed frustration. Then I knelt down, and gave her what she needed, what
I
needed.

She was as sweet as honey, and soft as a peach. I couldn’t get enough. I devoured her, ripe and ready and willing. She wriggled, arching away when it got too intense. “No,” I told her, sinking my fingers into the soft skin of her thighs and pulling her closer.

“Oh, God,” she half-gasped, half-growled, and her fingers went to my hair, clutching so tightly that it should have hurt, but it only felt so good, so good because of
why
she was doing it.

She clenched me tight, arching upward, and I felt her come, hard and fast, her screams echoing off the tile. The Blackhawks Training Center locker room had never sounded so goddamn sexy. I knew I’d be hearing her cries in my head every time I walked in here from now on.

When she had shuddered, and drawn in one last, shaking breath, she reached down to me. And that’s when I saw it. The fear, the hesitation. She knew what I wanted, could clearly see it there, standing as erect as a flagpole between us.

“Um,” she said, biting her lip.

Fuck me. No, seriously, fuck me
, I wanted to scream.

I wanted to twirl her around, bend her over, and take her, take her for everything she had. She must have seen that. She could see that hunger in my eyes.

And it frightened her.

I didn’t want to frighten her.

“Um,” she said again, hesitantly feeling for the buttons of her blouse.

I reached out and grabbed her hand then, even though every fiber of my body screamed out to grab her, yank her close, sear her mouth to mine…

I kissed her hand instead. “That one’s on the house, baby,” I told her.

She looked taken aback. “Really? You don’t want—”

I let out a short little sigh. “Oh, believe me darlin’, I want. But, I’m not going to take. You’re not ready. It’s going to be so sweet when you are, that I’m willing to wait for it. I’m ready when you are, Candace, but not before then.”

Her shocked smile was
almost
everything I needed. “Ian…” she said softly, and kissed me so sweetly that I knew I had done the right thing. I had done what a nice guy would do with his nice girl, even though it went against everything I actually wanted.

Nice guys finish last.

If they even get to finish at all.

“I’ll see you tonight?” she wanted to know.

“Looking forward to it, darlin’.” It was the truth.

She smiled and grabbed her things, righted her clothing, and headed to the door.

I turned around, went back into the showers, and turned the cold water on full blast.

Chapter Nine

Candace

“Hey, Candlestick!” Olivia breezed into the office, fifteen minutes late as usual, and plopped her Dior handbag on to her desk. Then she did a double-take.

“Oh my God, did you get laid before work?”

“I… Well—” I blushed, as I considered.
Does the most amazing oral ever count as getting laid?

“Doesn’t matter, you don’t need to answer if you’re going to get all shy about it. I can just tell these things. You have the air of someone freshly fucked.” She sat down in her chair and slid over to me. “Who was it? Oh my God, was it Ian Carter?”

I let my blush do the talking.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Olivia fanned herself briskly with her hands. “My sweet little Candy-girl with Ian Carter? I can’t—I'm only going to use odd numbers now, because I literally can’t even.”

“I like him,” I said shyly.

“I’d say you do.”

“I’m thinking of inviting him to dinner with my parents,” I mused.

“Really?”

I looked at her slyly. “I mean, I know there are plenty of fish in the sea, but he’s the only one I want to take home and mount.”

Olivia’s mouth was a perfect ‘O’ of shock. Then she swiveled in her chair. “Oh man, that’s freaking gold, Candace. She scribbled on her jot pad. “I am so using that, and definitely adding it to the permanent pickup line rotation.”

“You’re welcome,” I said smugly.

“But wait, didn’t you just like meet him three days ago? You really want to bring him home to meet the folks? Already? Aren’t you afraid you’re rushing things?”

I waved my hand. “It’s not anything formal. Just dinner. Why, do you not think it’s a good idea?”

Olivia shook her head, pressing her lips together. “Candy, you’re a sweetheart. That’s the best thing about you. But it’s also your biggest weakness. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt, okay? I think you might want to rethink that.”

I snorted. “Liv, you’re a cynical bitch, and that’s why I love you. But there’s no need to be suspicious about everyone. Ian’s a nice guy. I’m sure my parents will love him.”

Olivia rolled her eyes with the distinct air of someone about to launch into a ten-minute diatribe against men in general.

I was saved by the sudden appearance of Kyle Jarrett at our cubes. “So! Which one of you actually completed your assignment?”

Olivia and I both froze guiltily, like school children caught talking in class. I was the first to recover. “Oh, you mean testing the app?”

Kyle nodded like I was an especially slow child. “Yes. Your assignment was to test the app on different devices.”

“I have to say,” Olivia shook herself free of her deer in the headlights look. “I was a little disappointed.”

Kyle looked like she had reached out and slapped him across the face. “Really, Bryant?” he said, condescendingly using her last name. “And what disappointed you?”

Olivia folded her hands primly in her lap. “Well,
Jarrett
,” she said, matching Kyle’s condescension, “I have to say that I was disappointed in the results.”

Kyle blinked.

“Me, too,” I piped up, quick to have Olivia’s back. “For one thing, I went out on a date last night,” I turned my head away from Kyle’s zooming upward eyebrows. “And, well, he and I both had quite a lot of interest in each other.” Olivia snorted under her breath. I made like I hadn’t heard her. “Once we used the app, though,” I plowed on, “We found that our compatibility was only at twenty-percent.”

“Same situation over here,” Olivia piped up. “And the app matched me with a few guys that ended up being total duds.”

“A few?”
I mouthed to her over Kyle’s shoulder, eyebrows raised.

She waved me off. “I’m wondering if we need to retool our questions.”

Kyle looked perturbed. “These are the same complaints I’ve been getting from the focus groups,” he said irritably.

“So you know we’re not bullshitting you then,” Olivia clarified.

“Well,” Kyle spread his hands. “How do we fix this, ladies?”

Olivia was silent, but a sudden idea struck me. “I think,” I began. “I think the algorithms are slanted much too hard to focus on perfectly matched interests. After all, who wants to be with a clone of themselves?”

“Besides Kyle,” Olivia said, just under her breath.

“I heard that,” Kyle said. “Go on, Candace.” He looked intrigued.

“The saying is, ‘opposites attract,’ right? Perhaps we ought to be focusing our algorithms not on people who have completely matching interests, but on interests that oppose each other. Your introvert with your extrovert. Your sports lover with your homemaker. People who, instead of matching each other, complement each other. Fill in the gaps to make a whole, rounded person.”
My parents, for one,
I thought
. But also…
“People that can introduce their partners to new and exciting things, instead of the same old, same old they’ve already done.”

Like hockey practice and locker room oral.

Kyle’s bushy eyebrows were wiggling like particularly unappealing caterpillars. “Hunter,” he said, “that is exactly the kind of feedback we need to differentiate this service from all the other dating apps out there. Brilliant.”

I beamed, and even Olivia look impressed.

Then he dropped a bomb in my lap. “I’m putting you in charge of implementing these changes. As of this moment, you are the head of development.”

He walked away, leaving us both stunned.

“Did that seriously just happen?” I asked Olivia.

“Holy shit!” Olivia gasped. Then she raised an eyebrow. “Am I allowed to swear in front of you, boss lady?

“Oh fuck off,” I laughed. Then I clapped with glee. “That’s kind of awesome.”

“How did you even come up with all that stuff?” She paused. “Wait, don’t tell me. You are particularly inspired these days?”

“Ian actually did help me test it,” I confessed. “Oh my God, I have to tell him! I owe this all to him.”

“You don’t owe him anything. This is your own brilliance and dedication,” Olivia corrected.

But I was already reaching for my phone. “I can tell him at dinner, with my parents there, too,” I sighed happily, already picturing the scene. My parents were always worrying about my dating life and my career. If I walked into their home on the arm of my strapping new boyfriend and announced my new promotion, there was no way they could worry about me anymore.

Olivia leaned over. “Candace…” she said warningly.

“Stop,” I held up my hand. “I promise you, he’ll be happy to hear from me.”

The phone rang. I waited to hear his smooth baritone again. A tingle of expectation traveled down my spine and settled heavily in my core.

The phone picked up. “Again?” Ian answered on the first ring. “Stop calling me so much. Have some goddamned dignity.”

Then he hung up on me.

Chapter Ten

Ian

“Carter! Take five!” Coach Randall shouted. His face was weathered like an old baseball glove, but when it crinkled into a smile and it was the best thing you ever saw. He regarded me with that fond smile that always made me stand up straighter. “Actually...make that fifteen, son,” he said.

I nodded, smiling inwardly to hear him call me ‘son.’ He didn’t do it often, I guess to not make things weird with the rest of our teammates. But even though I was twenty-six years old and long since grown up from the sad, angry teenaged boy he took under his wing, I still treasured it every time said it.

I skated to the bench and sat down heavily, then poured some Gatorade down my throat.

Just when my breathing returned to normal, I heard my phone start buzzing.

The number was not one I recognize, but I decided to answer it anyway.
Maybe it was Candace’s home number?